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He repeatedly said he doesn’t consider himself a member of the tea party yet attracted its unmitigated support.

A second-term state treasurer and thrice-failed congressional candidate who spent many a weekend frequenting Lincoln Day dinners, he still managed to frame himself as the insurgent outsider against Indiana’s most hallowed politician, Sen. Dick Lugar.

While he’s portrayed by his opponents as a wild-eyed firebrand, on the stump he’s more likely to get misty-eyed quoting his hero, Abraham Lincoln.

However you slice it, after his 22-percentage-point thrashing of Lugar on May 8, the 60-year-old Mourdock is the favorite to be the next U.S. senator from Indiana.

And if he’s successful in defeating Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly this fall, he’ll be only the second senator in as many cycles to upend an incumbent.

That could give him special standing among his colleagues and make him a political consigliere for the next round of would-be insurgent challengers eyeing incumbents in 2014 and 2016.

Mourdock is far from infallible.

His campaign’s accidental early release of videos of the candidate reacting to the Supreme Court’s not-yet-delivered health care ruling highlighted an operation that’s still working out the kinks.

But Republicans scoff at Democrats’ comparisons of Mourdock to the GOP’s most infamous failed candidates of 2010: This is no Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell or Ken Buck, they say.

Mourdock is a geologist who has served Christian missions overseas and runs marathons and rides motorcycles.

His underdog run inspired fierce loyalty among grass-roots Hoosier activists who see him as a unique vessel to carry their cause — despite the fact that Mourdock never explicitly punched a tea party membership card.

“I think we’ll win by double digits, but we have to earn it,” said Greg Fettig, leader of the group Hoosiers for Conservative America, which spearheaded the effort to defeat Lugar. “We’ll be there. The tea party will be there. We have to win it. It would cripple our reputation if we don’t win it.”